Irrigation, especially in dry or arid geographies, is particularly important to commercial plant and tree growers, such as wineries. Wineries, and other commercial growers, may have thousands of plants located on several or many acres. As commercial growers are faced with the cost of water, there is a need to be efficient with irrigation of plants and trees, such as grapevines. And, in the case of growing plants in drought stricken areas, such as California, avoiding evaporation of water while irrigating the plants is very desirable.
Commercial growers may need miles of irrigation “spaghetti” tubing, thousands of connectors and fittings, and thousands of irrigation implements to irrigate individual plants and trees on a property. The cost of the irrigation implements on a per unit basis may have a significant impact in profitability for growers. If, for example, 5,000 irrigation implements are needed for a winery, the cost for the irrigation implements may be cost prohibitive.
Different irrigation implements or mechanisms have different configurations. Some irrigation implements have a tapered portion or spike member at the bottom to form an irrigation stake with openings or emitters along the sides of the irrigation stake to enable water to saturate soil surrounding the irrigation stake to water roots of a plant or tree. The problems with the irrigation stake are that (i) manufacturing costs are high because of the multiple sections and assembly required to produce the irrigation stake, (ii) the water can saturate soil areas not necessarily desirable, and (iii) emitters both below and above the surface of the soil in which the irrigation stakes are positioned may allow moisture to more easily evaporate from the soil and irrigation stake.
One existing commercially available irrigation is an irrigation stake formed of plastic material, and can cost two dollars or more per unit. The irrigation stake is over 2 feet long. In operation, the irrigation stake is driven into the ground near a plant or tree. A water tube is inserted into the stake to cause water to enter the stake that then leaks water through emitters or openings at the bottom of the stake into the soil. Because the stake has many emitters, evaporation may occur or water may leak into soil that unnecessarily receives the water.
Another type of irrigation implement includes a flexible, spongy material that is about 18 inches long and extends from an irrigation tube. This irrigation implement provides for releasing water along the spongy material. However, the spongy material, when buried in the soil proximate a plant or tree, may become clogged with biological matter, and evaporation from the spongy material may also be restricted. Because of the configuration of the spongy material, water is released along the length of the spongy material, and, therefore, may release in soil locations that are unnecessary and will evaporate more readily than desirable. Moreover, manufacturing the irrigation mechanism requires assembly to fixably attach an irrigation tube to the spongy material, thereby increasing cost of the irrigation implement. To install the irrigation implement, the flexible, spongy material has to be buried, which can be time consuming and difficult to avoid crimping or otherwise damaging the flexible, spongy material. Hence, an irrigation implement that (i) is low cost, (ii) increases watering efficiency (e.g., better water placement in the soil and reduced evaporation), and (iii) is easy to install is needed.